I find it exciting when companies create solutions that could decrease the use of toxic chemicals.
This not only saves honey bees and restores beekeeping to its proper place, but also benefits
our environment and, ultimately, us humans beings. I previously made a video about a new device
designed to save honey bees from the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor.
The results on paper were amazing, beating even the treatment protocol used by experienced
commercial beekeepers in Israel. But would American
beekeepers reach similar results? Early this year, the Israeli company ToBe visited
the United States and let a commercial beekeeper to play with the device the way he wants.
Well it wasn’t any beekeeping operation. They visit Wonderful Bees, one of the largest
beekeeping operations in United States. I spoke to Mr. Steve Richman head of the
beekeeping department at Wonderful Bees, to find out what happened with the device in his hands.
ToBe developed a device that can deliver precise amounts of any substance into a honey bee hive.
And got the attention of many beekeepers worldwide myself included.
The ability to fight Varroa mite infestation and at the same time
lower the amount of chemicals used is something that is very important to me.
It works like this, you choose the treatment you want, synthetic or natural. Put inside the
device. Position the device in the entrance of the hive press the button and done.
The device will take care of varroa treatments throughout the year,
delivering precise amounts of the treatment many times a day, several days a week,
without the need for the beekeeper. This saves a lot of labor and significantly reduces the amount
of chemicals used compared to common practices. The trial was organized as follows:
ToBe team, together with Wonderful Farms, set up colonies in two groups in two different
honey bee yards. One group, the control group, received standard amitraz strips,
commonly used by beekeepers, while the experimental group used the new device.
On days one and two, they measured the initial colony strength and load
of varroa infestation using standard procedures. After 15 days, they evaluated the colonies again.
They found that the standard amitraz treatment was only 30.5% effective, reducing the infestation
from 4.6% to 3.2% in yard one. However, the big surprise for Mr. Richman from Wonderful
Farms was the 95% efficacy of the new device, which reduced the varroa load from 4.5% to 0.2%.
What about the second honey bee yard, which had even more varroa than the first one?
Well, the device performed even better with an efficacy of 97.6%,
reducing the mite loads from 7.9% to just 0.3%. While the control group, which used standard
amitraz treatment has an efficacy of only 64.7%. If you ask me. I believe this
results might be realistic. Second, I truly think the way amitraz
is used with the device, with gas pulses, might be much more powerful than strips to kill mites.
But what happened with the mites hidden inside the brood cells? Would
them be affected by the new device? Well I knew Steve would not let that
question pass without an answer. 16 days after the start of the
treatment they pulled brood frames and open brood cells to count mites and what a surprise.
On the yard 01 the controls using strips showed around 7% infestation levels,
while the group using the device only had 0.9% infestation.
Similar results happened on the Yard 2.
Controls 8.9% infestation and the group using the device only had 1.8%
It's encouraging to see trials taking place with American beekeepers,
and I'm hopeful that this device might offer real help to beekeepers in the near future.
But what I like the most, as you probably know if you watch this channel,
is the significant reduction in pesticide use in this case.
I'm not a big fan of the way pesticides are used today,
and believe we have an obligation to find ways to reduce their use.
Not only for the safe of bees and pollinators but for every life on
earth including ours. This device is a step in the right direction.
and when you compare the whole amount of pesticide used in the
two groups you can clear see the difference.
In the control group, each hive received a total of 1g of Amitraz,
while the experimental group used only 0.2g of Amitraz, precisely released at the right
time and quantity. This represents an 80% reduction in pesticide used.
I which we could see similar reduction of Neonicotinoids in corn seeds in the
future. I like to dream about those things.
It is important to note that while the device currently uses Amitraz,
other protocols, such as Oxalic Acid, may be incorporated in the future. Oxalic Acid
is less harmful and can be very effective when used correctly. I am looking forward to seeing
a protocol that uses non-synthetic pesticide methods with this device.
So, what do you think? Do you see this device as a good idea or not?
Should we ask the ToBe team to send me 100 device for me to test
independently with some of my followers at home?
If you missed the other videos about the device, please watch this video right here,
I would like to thank my patrons for their support, and you for watching.
InsideTheHive.TV the show about bees
See you guys next week.